Environmental Entomology (2012) 41, 697-705

Haoliang Chen, Hongyu Zhang, Kun Yan Zhu and James E. Throne (2012)
Induction of reproductive diapause in Habrobracon hebetor (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) when reared at different photoperiods at low temperatures
Environmental Entomology 41 (3), 697-705
Abstract: Development of the parasitoid Habrobracon hebetor (Say) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) at low temperatures was determined to identify rearing conditions that might result in adults that were in reproductive diapause. Diapausing adults would be expected to survive cold storage longer than nondiapausing adults for use in biological control programs. Only a few eggs were found in the ovaries when H. hebetor females were reared during the immature stages at 17.5 and 20°C with a 16-h photoperiod, and the ovaries were poorly developed and contained no eggs when females were reared with a 10-h photoperiod in these low temperatures. Rearing H. hebetor at 17.5 and 20°C did not result in diapause of immature stages, but did appear to result in possible adult reproductive diapause when the immature stages were reared with a 10-h photoperiod. Females reared during the immature stages at 17.5°C with a10-h photoperiod lived longer and took longer to lay their first eggs and to lay 50% of their eggs than those females reared at 17.5°C with a16-h photoperiod. Females reared during the immature stages at 20°C with a10-h photoperiod took longer to lay their first eggs and to lay 50% of their eggs, and they had a lower respiration rate, than those females reared at 20°C with a16-h photoperiod. Females that were reared in conditions that appeared to induce reproductive diapause resumed oviposition and their respiration rate increased soon after being transferred to a higher temperature (27.5°C). Thus, females reared at a 10-h photoperiod at 17.5 and 20°C appear to enter reproductive diapause.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Hongyu Zhang, James E. Throne, Kun Yan Zhu

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
population dynamics/epizootiology
rearing/culturing/mass production

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
Habrobracon hebetor (parasitoid)			U.S.A. (SW)